


An unexpected love

by Suryallee



Series: An Unexpected Love Ark [1]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Angst, I need a Beta please, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Sexual Content, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Violnece (mentioned) against minors, is that even a tag?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-20 23:28:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suryallee/pseuds/Suryallee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Saruman had acted up a bit earlier as in the LOTR? How could that have played out for Bilbo and co...I did wonder and this came out of my musings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Capture

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hides under desk.  
> My other fiction (Of Hobbits and Dwarves) Will be updated in the future, but my Beta has family issues at home and needs a while. What I can truly understand and do support, don't ask. So I gave into temptation (and since I would not want to let you all wait without to give you something else to read so you will not go and murder me and her in the meanwhile) and posted this story of mine. I was actually wanting to find a beta for it first, oh well. Hopefully someone is interested and will volunteer? The first ark of it is finished this time, but I really need a beta for this story. (Is not ashamed to beg on her knees for one here!) I promise the chapters aren't that long... and its only fife, I swear! ...makes huge puppy eyes at possible Beta's and holds up a chibifeied, teary eyed Fili and Bilbo up to them to sway them.  
> Suryallee

An unexpected love  
Part one; Capture 

“Alaric! Do not go too near to the river, it’s not safe!” 

That was the last thing that Bilbo’s aunt Dandelion Took said this evening and in her life… an Orcish arrow through her troth ended her life swiftly right the same second she ended her talk. The screams begun right after and Bilbo, who tried to protect his younger cousins found himself soon running from Orcs. 

The next minutes were utter chaos and before Bilbo knew what had hit him he had been hit over the head by an Orcish club and was out like a light.  
Thus ended a wonderful family picnic in horror and blood… but it wasn’t over with that. 

The next two days were pure torture for the nearly grown Hobbit lad. The beasts and their masters hurried their captives, Bilbo, his Cousin Adalgrim, Alaric, his brother Roderic and their little sister Daisy that Bilbo did carry out of fear that a huge Warg could catch her when lagging behind and eat her. 

They were soon accompanied by a bunch of 5 human children from a village that the war trope flattened on their way. 

On their third day of brutal travel, one of the human children fell so ill it was comatose in the morning and was killed in front of their eyes from the Orc’s. After that, everyone held up as good as they could. Until the fifth day when the wargriders saw a group of traveling Dwarves and attacked the clearly family unit to kill all the adults gruesomely. 

Two more little ones joined the group of captives, one of them barely old enough to walk on its own. 

With Daisy now on his hand, Bilbo forged on with grit teeth, whilst holding the older little Dwarrow on the other and carrying the toddler on his back. Adalgrim soon took the youngest human child on his back and rescued the little girl this way from being feed to the wargs. He had a tight grip on Alaric and Roderic’s hands all the way long thought. 

The seventh day brought them all to the fringes of the gap of Rohan, to a tall black tower. 

With worry gnawing in his belly, Bilbo finally begun to get a clue what this all was about. He soon was proven correct. All ended up being inspected by the cold gaze of the so called white wizard, Saruman and were thrown into cages to be sold to Easterlings as slaves later, if he had understand correctly. 

“They are barely acceptable. I told you to keep them feed, healthy and alive! the Easterlings will not accept such damaged ware, you fools!” The Orc he had spoken to was the leader of their raiding group and before Bilbo knew what Saruman could have in store for the Orc, it was already dead on the floor with bleeding ears. And his were ringing from a strange power that the wizard had used with his voice to fell the Orc. 

Next to their cage was one filled with ten or so adult Dwarrows. 

They had been caught a day earlier, from what Bilbo could understand of the talk between the wizard and his goons. 

They were meant to be turned into Orc’s. His fathers books had taught Bilbo that such was impossible (Not even Morgoth had succeeded in turning Dwarrows into Orc’s in the far past), yet, Saruman seemed to want to try it. 

The Hobbit did not know what was going on. 

Why the wizard had turned evil and now worked with Orc’s together but seeing one after the next of the Dwarves die in the holes in the ground into that the wizard tossed them into over the next three weeks made him sick! 

In the meanwhile, Bilbo watched the surviving Dwarrows keenly. They had early on noticed him hiding away the two little Dwarflings from the wizards gaze as good as he could. One of the prisoners, a younger looking blond watched him often during their days of captivity. 

It became an weird constant that became almost soothing with the time spend in the cage for Bilbo who tortured his brain for a way out of his captivity in the meanwhile.


	2. Part Two; Escape

Each time Saruman’s Orc’s came anew to take two of the Dwarrows they put up an hellish fight. In two of the times they even managed it to kill some of the Orc’s. In the end, it were too many for them to take on. 

Still, the other Dwarves always kept the two youngest of their group in the back so that the Orc’s could never get to them. 

The blond one kept up his strange staring at him and made Bilbo mightily nervous with it. “What are you doing?” He asked one day when he saw Bilbo hide the shards of a smashed bowl in a hole under their straw. Bilbo shrugged at the deep voice of the blond dwarf. 

“I am not sure yet, to be honest. It is just a vague plan that I have.” He eyed the blond with the stunningly blue eyes for a moment. “I am sorry for your friends.” The Dwarf nodded and sighed. “He will never succeed with his mad plan. Mahal made us to endure everything thrown at us, you know. He made us different. Saruman is a fool!” 

He said nothing more that evening. Just sat there with tightly screwed shut eyes and balled fists. 

The next day the Orc’s took the last reminding other Dwarrows out of their cell and hit the blond unconscious when he killed two of them in his rage. The darker one of the left two helped the blond further back into their cage while all of them listened to the screams of the others until they shut down forever. 

It was the only time Bilbo saw them cry and without to notice it, he too did cry with them. That night he slept near the wall to their cage. One hand through the bars, grasped on by the blond while he held his brother close and slept fitfully. 

The next morning Saruman raged at them in the cage about it that his plans did not work for a good hour. 

When the last ones of the group, a younger pair of brothers was brought to the pits in the next room, Bilbo put a mad plan into motion. He had in the last days taken one of the bowls and had shattered it and than had hidden the shards under the straw. It was what the blond had seen him do. When the guards walked out each evening, the youth had begun to saw the ropes of their cage to loosen them enough so the children and he could slip out. 

Adalgrim had not said anything to his working or plans, he simply minded the children in the meanwhile while the Dwarrow had ignored him mostly. 

Over the last weeks, one more of the human children had died as well as one of the little Dwarrows had fallen sick. The latter had recovered until now just barely and one of the older two of the Hobbit children was showing signs of becoming sick from the fool food they were getting. 

Bilbo could wait no longer, they had to break out, Now! 

To his entire wonderment, his plan… worked? To get out of the cage and ties was the easy part, he soon realized. To get out of the tower without to be spotted from the Orc’s was an entirely other. Together with the oldest human child, a boy named Sorel and Adalgrim, he managed it just barely to avoid detection. 

“Bilbo!” His cousin whispered urgently. “Look, that’s the two that they carried away earlier.” He pointed into one of the pits they all had to pass on their way out of the rooms of their captivity. True to his cousins words, the two holes in the ground held now the two Dwarves. Still fully clothed, the brothers seem to float in the fool soup of whatever was inside. 

“Do you think they are still live?” His cousin asked and all Bilbo could do was to shrug. This moment chose the blond one of them to shake violently as if caught in a bad dream and Bilbo’s heart made a horrible jump at the realization that yes, they could be. Nearby lay their weapons and gear and that of those of the other, unfortunate souls from before. If the duo was still alive and not turned, Bilbo realized it suddenly with startling clarity, maybe they could help them all to escape! 

He kneeled down and cut the thin membrane over the sick hole carefully with a grabbed knife until the greasy fluid inside trickled out. Soon it was followed by the soaked and badly wheezing Dwarf that convulsed to get the unhealthy looking brew out of his lungs again. 

Coughing weakly, the dwarf needed some seconds to recover enough to squint at Bilbo who held him up a little. Bilbo did not wait for the blond to recover more, he swiftly gave him over to Adalgrim and cut the next membrane too to haul the darker out of it to reach him over to Sorel and found a third hole that he opened up as well only to discover that the Dwarf inside was dead. 

The body looked twisted to him and he fast covered the hole up again with some dirt. Bilbo had to keep down the pressing need to vomit at what he had seen. 

“W..! Wh… who are yo.. you? …the Hobbit fro… from the ca… cage? Th.. thank you!” The blond one, the first freed, spoke that under violent coughs that wracked his sturdy body. The second Dwarf, the darker one, slowly recovered also and clutched now to the blonds overlay. Bilbo only knew them to be brothers because Saruman had said before that they were brothers. He had been immensely pleased with it that his Orc spies had captured the, what he called, Durin Brothers. 

He did not talk to the Dwarf instead he helped him up carefully while Sorel did the same with the dark haired one. 

“We have to get out of here, Quick! Or they will find out that we got loose and you two out of this…this … I do not have words for this! I do not think any of us wants to find out what they will do if they manage it to capture us again! Do you think you can walk?” 

The Dwarf nodded sharply. A grim look on his face that was still smeared with the greasy fluid from the pit he had laid in. “Give my brother and me a second to gather our weapons.” He let go on Bilbo and walked, first a bit unsteadily than surer with each step, over to the tables with the various weapons and gear and silently took his from it. His brother followed suit shortly after. The two did not let it at that, they insisted on it that Bilbo, Adalgrim and Sorel took blades and packs too and even gave some to the older children. 

Reluctantly, Bilbo took one of the leftover bows and quivers too, he could use a bow since his mother and uncles had given him hours in the late. Adalgrim took one of the axes with him, just in case as he said and off all were. 

“Do you have any idea how to get out of here, Hobbit?” The darker brother asked Bilbo after a while of sneaking around. His voice deeper as his brothers and still raspy from the pit. The hobbit shook his head. “Only vaguely so, I am afraid.” He whispered back. He hoped against hope that his books had been correct and that the Orc’s or Saruman had not discovered the tunnel he wanted to use to escape from here! 

“How do you know of how to escape anyways?” The blond asked while spying around a corner carefully. Bilbo gave him a look when he motioned them all to hurry into the next archway on silent feet. “My father had books on this place that he made me read when younger. And my mother was a friend of the northern Rangers.” 

Bilbo remembered happier days while he told the blond that. 

Sometimes in the past, some of the Dunedin had visited his mother. They had often told stories of the old times, when their kin had still ruled the land in peace. The tower of Isengard had been featured in one of them. When he had asked about the full history of the towers, one of them had brought him a book the next time he visited. It had been about the history of the watchtowers of the old Kings and in one of the stories had been mentioned that Isengard had once been accessible through a tunnel, situated deep in the underground. 

He told this to the two Dwarves and Adalgrim who did not argue with Bilbo that the tunnel was most likely, their only hope to get out alive. Everywhere were Orc’s bustling around. They searched for nearly four hours, always on the brink of being discovered until they managed to find the chamber in the lower levels of the former watchtower of the Kings of Angmar in which the door to the tunnel was hidden according of Bilbo’s knowledge. It was a blue titled room near the entrance to the tower, as it had been described in his book. 

Another hour of occasionally hiding from messenger Orc’s running through the chamber, before they found the well hidden door to it and another one again to open the accursed thing. 

“This is a Dwarven door! Why is a from Dwarven craftsmen made door in a tower of the Kings of Numenor?” The blond exclaimed when finding the door. Bilbo had no answer for him other as what he had told him. The Dwarf shrugged and went to open the door with his brother together. When they finally opened it (The handle to open it had been hidden under a title next to it), all slipped inside and closed it quickly behind them again. Silently, it fell shut and it went dark around them. 

“Well, “ Adalgrim said into the utter blackness around them. “I do hope we have some torches that we can use. I, for one, see nothing in here, what’s with you Bilbo?” 

“Me neither, cousin… can you two see in here, Master Dwarves?” 

“Yes, wait a second and stay where you are. Don’t move!” That had been the dark haired one, Bilbo realized from the sound of the voice. He had to stay not far from him, he estimated and heard the two adult Dwarves walk around in the utter darkness. One time he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder and he jumped a little at that. than the voice of the blond floated through the uttermost darkness and calmed him. 

“We found a old torch, be patient a few seconds longer, Master Hobbit.” He told Bilbo quietly and released his shoulder when his brother asked if anyone had some tinder on them. Soon after he heard something clink and click against each other and than the flare of sudden light filled the tunnel. He had to blink at the abrupt light as did the other non Dwarves of their odd group. 

“Thank Yavanna! At least we can now see something in here.” Exclaimed Adalgrim in his relieve. Bilbo could only nod and hoisted the little Dwarfling up on his back again to a more comfortable position. The little tyke simply snuggled into his hair and grasped onto Bilbo a little less hard as before. He was sure he would later have bruises from how hard he had been clutched on in the last hours but Bilbo did not complain. 

Wordlessly, the blond did the same with little Alaric that he had carried so that they could run faster while the other Dwarf had carried little Daisy on his arm. “What now?” He asked. Bilbo gave all around them a look. 

“I think it would be best to know our names. I am Bilbo Baggins, at your service.” 

Adalgrim followed suit and introduced Alaric and Roderic and Daisy to the others. He still carried little Roderic on his back while Sorel had the smallest human girl on his and held onto the second Dwarfling on his arm. “I am Sorel, Normans son and these are Mina and Lena my sisters. Our cousins… died… on our way here and here in that Cage!” He broke off and begun to cry while the blond Dwarf reached out and rubbed his back soothingly with a grimace, if not a bit awkwardly in his movements. 

Bilbo watched this with tears in his eyes. 

“I am Kili, son of Dis and this is my older Brother Fili, son of Dis. We got captured by those sons of Melkor on a hunt outside our settlement in the north.” The darker haired Dwarf introduced his brother and himself with a scowl on his face. 

Adalgrim and Bilbo exchanged a look. 

“The two little Dwarflings are Mim and what seems to be his little sister or cousin, Auld. Although, I am not sure here what exactly is right to say, I fear the two only speak your language?” He rearranged the girl on his back again before he spoke once more. “They were traveling with their family from what I understand when the Orc’s and warg’s killed them all besides those two here. From what I gathered, we were meant as slaves for some Easterlings coming here from Rhun.” 

Kili begun to cuss violently in his native tongue while the other one, Fili hit one fist into the stonewall in his anger.   
“So, this is how he got his dirty hands on two Dwarflings…” The blond growled. Than he turned quickly around again to glance at Bilbo.   
“You are the oldest here beside us?” Bilbo nodded slowly. 

“I fear so, yes. I am one year short of my majority, what is thirty-three for Hobbits. Adalgrim is four years younger than me. Sorel is fourteen and his sisters are ten and seven. I do not know how old Auld and Mim are but think they are still toddlers in your reckoning like Daisy is in ours, she is four. Roderic and Alaric are seven.” 

Fili nodded. 

“My younger brother is barely of majority himself, he is sixty and I am sixty-five years old. Damn! What a mess.” Bilbo nodded. He agreed to that wholeheartedly. “If my fathers books were correct, the tunnel we are in should lead into the misty mountains or near them. My only sorrow is, how we find food and water enough to stay alive. We are rather ill equipped for such a long walk.” The Dwarf brothers exchanged a look. 

Than the older seem to reflect that over. 

“Maybe…if we are lucky, we will find water on our way. But, I think it would be best if we try to sneak into the kitchen we saw on our way here and try to steal some food and water packs from there.” Bilbo sighed heavily at that. Fili was right, they would not survive long otherwise.   
What a mess, indeed! 

After a long debate of who should do the sneaking, he was the one elected. Since he was the most silent of them all and the only adult or near adult under the Hobbits. Sneaking out soon made it clear to Bilbo that their flight had not been discovered so far. They were in luck. From the looks of it, this night some of the men of the east had arrived and they had caused a sufficient distraction for Bilbo and the others without to know it. 

The kitchen was in a bustle but the storerooms to the left were empty of any living soul. He soon had snatched off some smoked meats and even fruits, clearly meant for Saruman’s table, and had taken some full water skins and packs full with bread and other stuff made by humans clearly and snuck out again to the door. Two times he was nearly discovered but in the end, he made it there undetected. 

“I do not think that I will be so lucky again.” He told the others half out of breath from his run. “We will have to make do with what I could carry, sorry.”   
Fili patted him on the back with a grin. 

“No matter, my friend. It will do. As I said, to find water will be not the problem for us down here, we are Dwarves after all and will always find such in the stone. But finding food will be a difficulty if we are not careful. There are no animals living underground to hunt. Maybe we can locate mushrooms in here. They usually grow in such old tunnels near water or wet places. Not the best food but it will do. Also, we have the packs that we took from the table. In them should be still some way provisions and water skins. We will have to look through them later, when we are further away from here. I do not think that the cursed wizard knows about this tunnel or it wouldn’t look so dusty in here. Lets bring some distance between them and us, alright? ” 

He told the Hobbit calmly. 

All Bilbo could do was to agree hoist up Auld once more and they were walking again.


	3. Wandering days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone read this? Is wondering.   
> And thank you kindly for the Kudos left^__^

On their way, they saw many torches like the ones Fili and now Adalgrim carried. 

Bilbo’s suggestion to take some with them, just in case, was silently taken up and soon they all carried some in their packs with them. They walked for what seems to be hours before the older Dwarf told them all to sit down and rest. After feeding the littlest of their odd group and putting them to bed, or rather into the bedrolls of the deceased Dwarrow warriors, Fili walked over to Bilbo and sat down next to the Hobbit. 

They watched the others in silence for a while. The Dwarf had brought out a pipe and had lit it. Sharing it with the Hobbit he and Bilbo sat in silence for a good while longer. 

“I had no time to thank you properly before. For freeing Kili and me when you could have walked by.” The Hobbit shook his head tiredly. “There is no need for it, I assure you. If the other had been alive, I would have freed him too. No one deserves such a fate! …He, his limbs were twisted beyond recognition, Master Fili. It looked sickening.” 

Fili swallowed and than nodded calmly while Kili settled with his own pipe down near the two. 

“Still, you did not need to and did free us never less. We both own you a dept and even more than one for caring for the little ones of our kin.” Kili told Bilbo softly, to not wake up the now near him softly snoring Adalgrim with his voice. Bilbo rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Again, there is no need to, Master Kili. I could not leave you in… that! I would have never forgiven myself if I had done so. I just worry what awaits us in the future. And over the little ones health and safety. The children are much too thin and shaken from this to the bone… we better prepare for night terrors. They will surely have them in the near future!” 

Kili nodded sagely. His brother and he knew as much. Bilbo, Fili and he would have them as well, of that he was sure. 

“One of us has always to take a watch from now on when we rest.” Fili’s deep voice interrupted their thoughtful silence. “It is not safe to do otherwise. I will take up the first one tonight, then Kili and then you, Bilbo.” The other two nodded and went to their bedrolls to gather some rest. This pattern established itself over the next days. 

With the addition of Adalgrim to the rotation of watches once he heard about it, eager to be useful. 

Sorel was made responsible to look after the older children when walking while Adalgrim, Bilbo, Fili and Kili took the front and the rear positions on their marches. With one of the brothers always positioned at the rear and the front. Both slowly teaching Adalgrim and Bilbo about the dangers of the underground world while they walked. 

As well as how to survive it. 

It took them nearly a week, from what Bilbo could tell about the time that had passed, to reach a break in their way. One tunnel lead north, Fili told them, the other westwards. How the Dwarf knew to tell into which direction they did lead into the dark with no stars to tell him that was beyond Bilbo. He had to trust the senses of the Dwarves in here. His earlier suggestion to take the torches with them now came in handy. Since no more of them littered the tunnels after the second day. They all had crumbled under the teeth of time. The one leading westwards smelled of gas as Kili pointed out, so they all took the one leading north. 

Soon it was clear that the tunnel lead into the direction of the old Dwarrow kingdom, Moria. 

No one felt well with the thought to have to maybe cross the old abandoned and now Orc filled kingdom but there was nowhere else that they could go. This rest time, Fili bedded down next to Bilbo as it had become his habit in of late with a thoughtful face. “Moria… it is a legend under my kin still after so long a time.” He gave Bilbo a short glance before he laid down more comfortably and rested on his side with his head on one bend arm to cushion it. “There was a great battle between my people and the Orc’s in there a while back, did you know that?” 

At Bilbo's tired shake of his head, the Dwarf shrugged and his eyes grew misty. 

“It was the Battle of Azanulbizar. It was fought beneath the East-gate of Moria in the valley of Azanulbizar what the elves call Nanduhirion. Many of the reminding Dwarves of the former kingdom of Erebor died in those days when my great grandfather, King Thror, mad with grief to lose Erebor to a Dragon, chose to reclaim the old home of us Longbeards.” 

“Your people lost their home to a Dragon?!” Bilbo was floored to learn that. Dwarves did not talk often about their affairs, he had not known any about this. It was hard to come by books that told of the stout folk of Aule. 

Fili just nodded calmly. 

“My mother was still young when the Dragon, Smaug came and drove our people out of our home in the east. The people call it the lonely mountain in Westron, I do believe. For us, it was our home after the Balrog awoke and drove us out of Khazad-dûm what in Westron is called Moria.” He told Bilbo in a hushed voice. The Hobbit sat up a little, he so loved a good story telling and the young dwarf mesmerized him with both, story and his pleasantly deep voice easily. 

Fili, Bilbo thought, had a rather nice voice. 

One could easily drown in it and the Hobbit lad liked how lilting it sounded at times. The Dwarf was a rather fine fellow, and if one looked past his strange beard and braided mustache that Bilbo wasn’t accustomed to see on Hobbit faces, one could clearly call him handsome too. He gazed down at the still resting Fili with a shocked look. 

Suddenly a realization washed over him… it couldn’t be…? 

“Wait a second here… your… great… grandfather? I mean… I mean you tell me… wouldn’t that make your brother and you royalty?!” He all but nearly screamed, remembering in the last second to tone his shocked voice down until it came out sounding more like an odd wheeze as the screech that it would have been otherwise. 

Fili only smirked and nodded unrepentant up at the flabbergasted looking Hobbit. 

“We Are of the line and house of Durin the Deathless. Kili and I, both. Thror had a son named Thrain who in turn was the father of our Mother and two sons of that one still lives and rules what is left our people in the blue mountains near Ered Luin.” He told the Hobbit amused of his shocked antics casually as you please. 

Bilbo fell back down into his bedroll with a huff. 

“You are a horrible, really horrible Dwarf, Master Fili! To shock a poor Hobbit like that.” He told the highly amused Fili muffled trough the bedroll cloth, one finger up over his head, waving in the air to make a point. 

Next to him, Fili dissolved in barely suppressed wild chuckles at the sight and words. 

He clutched at his sides in his weak try to keep his mirth down so no one would wake up from his laughs. Much to the annoyance of Bilbo who glared at him from the side. 

“That’s not funny at all, you big royal doofus!” He told him equally impertinent and exasperated. Bilbo only succeeded in making the Dwarf shake worse from his suppressed cackles and roll away from him onto his other side in his attempt to be quiet.   
Bilbo huffed aggravated at the sight and turned around too to find some sleep. 

Next to him, Fili needed a longer while to calm down again. Never before had someone else besides family dared it to call him thus! Come to think of it, no one else had ever reacted so comical to his status either, he sniggered madly again. The hobbit was priceless, his reactions had him want to laugh all the time. He… liked Bilbo. 

Fili turned again to watch the back of the now asleep Hobbit. 

There was something on Bilbo that drove Fili to him like a moth to the flame of a candle. Maybe it was his rather down to earth temper or his sharp wit? He did not know for sure. Only that he liked it immensely to be around the Hobbit.   
Yawning he closed his eyes to get some shut eye too. 

It took them another two days to reach a rather impressive looking passageway that lead to a hall with high ceilings and wonderfully worked arches with carved walls. 

They had reached the rim of the old Dwarven kingdom. 

When they finally reached an old looking door, Fili stopped to inspect an old engraving in the wall next to it with an arched brow. 

“From what I can tell, we truly reached an old tunnel entrance to the former kingdom of Moria… unbelievable! This note here says that we are currently north of the mine area and even gives me the directions to an nearby pathway out of here. If the walkway is still intact and has not been discovered like this tunnel too, than we actually have a good chance to get out of here alive and soon!” He gave the others behind him a rather shocked look that was echoed from Kili and Bilbo. 

“Are you sure brother? I wish Ori or Balin were here with us, he is better as we both in reading the older runes!”   
But Fili only nodded enthusiastically back at his brother. 

“I am pretty sure, Kili! They are not so complicated to read. Uncle had me read worse to train me. If I am not mistaken here, then we have to cross the older mithril mines to reach the pathway I spoke about earlier. If we are lucky, and move silent enough, we can walk out of here without to alert the confounded Orc’s in here of our presence. All we have to do is to stay silent and unseen.” 

He turned to the old door and searched the nearby wall for a while until he discovered a handle in the wall, hidden from sight. Pulling it, the door swung slowly open under groans of disuse over centuries. Behind it was a dusty looking old tunnel that did not looked like it had been used for a very long time. Here and there leaned a mining tool or what was left of it against the walls. 

Exchanging a look with the others, the group gulped and walked in. Behind them, Kili closed the door again.   
Bilbo wondered idly what it was with Dwarves and hidden doors or door handles but left it wisely at that. 

Their food was slowly running out. 

They had found water in the tunnel before. At least that was currently not their main problem. But the older trio was worried about their dwindling food resources until they crossed a smallish cave filled with the mushrooms Fili had spoken about in the beginning of their march. The mushrooms tasted strange looked even odder but were edible and filled better as Bilbo would have thought. For once, all could eat as much they wanted and there was still enough left. 

There were an adequate amount of the plants for that to do. 

Storing away as much as they could, they walked on again. 

It took them a day from the cave to reach the old mining tunnels in which their torchlight was reflected most wonderfully and the sight of the rare metal, still inside of the stone was mesmerizing them all. Bilbo took to it to gather up some of the loose metal ore laying around to store it away in his pack under the curios looks of the others of his group. The others soon followed suit when he told Fili that he did plan to use it for the children who now had no one anymore. 

He wanted to sell it later to ensure their upbringing and education. The brothers exchanged a look at that, shrugged and wordlessly did the same. The metal was not too heavy, in actual fact it weighted almost nothing at all. Fili explained it to Bilbo that mithril weighted less than normal metals would do and Bilbo was glad about that. 

It made it easier for him to gather more to carry it out. 

In the meanwhile, Fili wondered if Bilbo had any clue at all about the worth that he had gathered up and now did carry in his pack around with him. A handful of the rare metal was already worth more as the Hobbit did weight in gold and gems! Let alone the now nearly full backpack of Bilbo. Unknown to Bilbo, he had collected together a fortune over the last day. One, that would easily finance the entire life of the children in the future and in the end there would still be enough leftover to spend on other things easily. 

Kili and Adalgrim and he too had gathered up nearly an equal amount of ore in their packs in addition to Bilbo’s collection. 

Even divided between them all, they would have enough to be rich once they made it out! 

Shaking his head, the Dwarf smirked lopsidedly at the foresight of the Hobbit. Fili realized it ruefully that he would not have thought of it. Not even to gather some up to take it out with him. In the last days, weeks even, the Hobbit hat turned into a rather fascinating fellow. Bilbo was clever and had a snarky tongue that could bite like the best with ease. He was calm and had a swift intellect that was making it fun for Fili to mentally spar with him. He was also a responsible, caring soul. The way Bilbo handled the children and how they gravitated to him made that very clear to anyone with eyes to watch.   
He chuckled when the realization came to the Dwarf that he seemingly had developed a slight crush on the mostly quiet Hobbit. 

That Bilbo did look rather appealing to him, even as dirty like trolls as they all were, was only helping the matter along. Sure, Bilbo had no beard at all but surprisingly for Fili, that was another exotic feature on the Hobbit that he surprisingly found attractive on Bilbo. Shaking his head at his own train of thoughts, Fili concentrated back on their path through the abandoned mines. 

Mahal forbid that they would run over the trail of Durin’s Bane by accident! 

The Balrog was rumored to still life down in the deepest mines and Fili had no desire to try his mettle against an enraged Balrog. He knew without doubt who would win in such a battle. Only four hours of walking later, they found the pathway and were out of the mining region again. 

He silently heaved a sigh of relieve when they left the shining mines. 

The next three days brought them steadily upwards. On the third day leaving the mines, their food run out. One day later, they reached the end of a side tunnel that they had taken and stepped outside again for the first time since weeks walking under the earth and in the deep stone foundation of Moria. The sight that greeted the exhausted and hungry group was as breathtaking as it was scary. 

Long planes of grasslands as far as the eyes could see, with an occasional blue spot, indicating a small lake here and there. In the far distance, a unknown massive of a unknown mountain-back arose that was not familiar to Fili and Kili.

“Oh Mahal be merciful! We must be far further North as we anticipated it, Fili!” 

Kili’s exclamation earned him a grim nod from his brother. 

“That we are, but at least we are outside of any territory that the Orc’s do frequent from what Balin taught me, Kili. There are some settlements of humans scattered over the land here but I doubt it that we a relatively near of any of those. Maybe the small lake down there has some fish inside. We should walk down there and see if we can gather up anything to eat. Food first and worries later, brother!” 

Kili agreed with a groan after rubbing his face. 

In the harsh light of the late summer sun, all of them looked pale, sickly and undernourished to Bilbo. It was a marvel that they had made it, he soon realized and he send a silent prayer of thanks to the merciful lady of the Valar, Nienna for that wonder. 

Especially the Hobbit’s and humans looked rather sick, from the lack of sunlight under the earth. He just knew that their walk under the mountain would have repercussions for them all in the near and far future if they did not cure themselves from the aftereffects very soon. 

He looked around for berries on their walk down. 

It still took them a good deal of the rest of the day to reach the lake and settle on the rim down to catch some fish. For the first time of their flight they risked a fire. Adalgrim had found some plants that they could use for cleaning and the water of the small lake was surprisingly warm for the climate and region they were in. 

Kili mused that it had an underground hot spring that warmed the water up so much and they left it wisely at that. After cleaning themselves and their gear as good as they could and filling their bellies with real food for the first time in weeks, the children soon fell asleep where they sat.   
This night, even Fili fell asleep on his watch. Luckily, nothing happened that night. It was as if the Valar held a protecting hand over the odd group. 

When waking the next day, the Dwarf was thoroughly self-conscious about his slip but no one made fun of him or it. All had been too tired to keep awake. They staid at the lake for two more days. Busy with hunting food for further travel and making plans to where exactly they should turn now. 

“I still say we should find a settlement and try to send a message to our kin, Fili.” 

The older Dwarrow shook his head while climbing down a rock to turn to help Bilbo and the little ones down from it. 

“I still do not think that it would be wise to do so, Bilbo. Trust me in this. Humans, no offence Sorel, but normally they do not take kindly on orphans or smaller folk like us. I have seen this often enough in the past on or travels when my people still had no place to call their own.”   
He fell silent with the memories of those days, when he had been not much older as Auld was it now and had seen his uncle and kin being turned away often enough. 

Sometimes the humans had even tried to rob them of their meager possessions or to murder the Dwarrows that had approached them for trade or help. It had left a bitter streak of distrust in Fili, to see this happen repeatedly and to whiteness the cruelty of realty much too often when being still much too young. 

He knew, if those humans found out that they carried mithril with them, they would attack their odd little group immediately. 

“No, our only hope is to find a place to make a permanent camp for the now. A place that easily defendable and than find a way to pass a message to the Rangers that life up here somewhere. Trust me, it is the safer way! Besides, the weather is getting colder. You pointed that out yourself, Bilbo. It’s late summer, nearly autumn. We need a safe place in case we do not make it back into a region that is nearer to our homes before the winter breaks in.” He gave the pouting Hobbit a stern look that made Bilbo grumble and finally give in. 

“Fine! But how do you suggest that we survive the upcoming winter? We need provisions for that, which we do not have, Fili!” 

That was one of the flaws of his plan, the biggest actually. Trust it to Bilbo to point it out, Fili thought wryly. 

It was what worried him the most. And he had no idea how to solve his dilemma! Not to mention that he did not want to loose any of the members of their odd group ever again. He and his brother too, had grown fond of them all. Possessive even in a way. Such was the way of his people, once they grew fond of someone or something, they tried to keep them and such at any cost. 

Bilbo especially had grown on the Dwarf. He liked, no actually more than simply liked the snarky Hobbit already. Fili knew, if he was not very careful, the lad would go back to his Shire and out of his life for good and that was simply not acceptable in Fili’s line of thoughts anymore! 

He wanted to keep Bilbo and the others too. Maybe even court the Hobbit, once he got him used to the idea to stay with his kin rather as to go back to his own people. How he could accomplish that, Fili had still no clue but he constantly tried to find a way out of his quandary. 

Later that same day Bilbo spotted an old Sheppard and his herd on their way. 

The old man was kind to them and even let them bed down for the night with his herd of sheep and himself. He told them finally where exactly they were on the map of Arda. Much, much further North as they all had thought it to be possible. They had nearly reached the outskirts of the northern Ice walls of the Hellcaraxe. 

Further north-west from them begun a mountain-back that was abandoned by Fili’s kin since the first age and the sacking of the western lands.   
He kindly advised them to try their luck there. For the next four days, they traveled with the kind old man over the land to there. He knew every knack and nanny around here and brought them far faster to the rim of the looming mountainside as they could have traveled there on their own. Finally as a farewell present, he told them about something that he had discovered when he had been much younger but had never dared to explore. 

“There is an old settlement of yer people up in those mountains, lad” He told the surprised Fili somberly. Fili had not known that there had once one been there at all. 

“I found it one day when one of the sheep’s run off and fell into a broken in cavern in the mountainside we are on. It was too deep for me to recover the sheep but I could see from up there that the cavern had been once a lavishly carved out hall in the underground. The ceiling must have broken in with time. Maybe ye and yer friends can find shelter in there, boy.” 

He patted one of his dogs affectionately. 

“Are you sure, Master Roltan?” Fili could not believe his luck lately! If what the old Sheppard said was true and that settlement was still salvageable enough to live in, his people could finally have a safe place again to call their own. The blue mountains had turned out to be rather dangerous territory in of late and the mines were miserable at best. If that old place still held something worth mining for in its depths, than maybe his people could finally find a foot back in the trades enough to recover from their hardships of the past a little. 

Besides that they would have a protected home and he could find the time to figure out a way to keep Bilbo! 

“Aye! Me am laddy. Never told a soul about it, thought. Didn’t seem to be right with those greedy creeps living up here. But with ye I have no trouble to do so. It belongs to yer people, not to humans and I am still proper enough to know to do what is right. I wish ye all the luck ye can get, lad. But be careful and avoid the others living up here! The most folk around here is not of the good sort, son. They are a greedy, merciless lot and only a few will tread ye and those little sweethearts right, beware of them, young master Dwarf! I will see to it that yer message reaches yer uncle in the blue mountains, I promise ye that. My son will deliver it for me, he is due to travel there for trade anyways. Farewell!” 

Kili and Fili exchanged an alarmed look with Bilbo and Adalgrim. 

After that, Bilbo stopped his nagging and walked on in silence. He was clearly crushed at the words of advice of the kind old man. Fili watched him retread into himself for a while with sorrow. Clearly, the Hobbits had never been confronted with the harsher facts of life before. Sighing he refrained from teasing Bilbo about it and instead left the Hobbit sort his mind out by himself. 

True, his kin was sometimes rather paranoid towards strangers and other racers, the line of Durin even more so as others. Still, there was a point to their mistrust that the Hobbits and other races often oversaw when confronted with it. 

It was experience. 

His people more so than the most, had learned their lessons well over the last decades. When their former allies abandoned them as fast as they could or their kin even had denied them help of any kind. Many of the folk of Durin had died because of that. 

Kili’s and his father being one of those unfortunate souls. 

Adalgrim next to them had a hard time to chew it down that Fili had been right with his judgment about the people living up here in the north. Glancing uncertainly at Fili or Kili from time to time, he realized it that the Dwarrow princes had a good point for keeping them all away from the human settlements. 

They reached the chasm of that the old Sheppard had spoken about a day later.


	4. A find of the different kind

Exactly in the same spot that he had described was a sudden gap in the ground of the mountainside. 

And true to the old man’s words, it was indeed an old hall that had a broken in ceiling. It took Kili a day to find the old entrance to the caverns under this part of the mountains. Once he came back, he sported a rather confused and awed look. 

“You all will never believe me this!” He told them, clearly still under the influence of whatever he had found. 

Once he had lead them there, no one questioned his awed looks anymore. 

The old doors had long since dissolved but the great cavern they had once lead into was more or less intact and truly the entrance hall to an old, abandoned place of the Dwarrows of old. Shells lined the stone on the walls. Long since turned to stone itself. It spoke of it that the entire place had been under water for a long time in the past. 

It looked simply breathtaking and impressive all the same to the group. 

“It looks like one of the places of the tales of old.” Bilbo told Kili almost reverently when seeing this. “What do you mean?” Kili looked a bit perplexed down at the slightly smaller Hobbit that still looked at the walls around them. Pointing up Bilbo tried to clarifier what he had in mind.   
“Look! Do you see the lines and shells on the walls?” 

When Kili nodded while Fili stepped over to listen in, Bilbo went on. 

“Those are the reminders of how high the water stood in here at some time in the far past. It must have been up to there for a long time to leave such marks in the stone. All of that here,” He opened his arms and moved in a cycle as if encompassing the entire place, “It all must have been under water for at least…maybe a few hundred years?” He looked back at the brothers calmly. 

“After the sacking of Belerianth, this place must have been pulled under the waves under many others. Whoever of your people lived here before, they had to leave. 

That must have been right after the sacking and later, I guess, your people have forgotten about this place. Maybe they never thought about it that it could be assessable again at some point, maybe the clan living here died out… in the end no one remembered this place anymore.”   
Fili agreed to that in his mind. 

He had come to the same conclusion. 

From the looks of the artwork still visible, he could tell that this place had belonged to the old Broadbeam clan in the past. Balin had educated him well. He could also make out that this had been one of the bigger settlements of that clan. Still, he felt…right being here. For the lack of a better wording, it felt like home to just stand inside of this old halls. 

From the look on Kili’s face, his brother felt the same odd feeling. They exchanged a look that spoke more than a thousand words could ever tell.

“Lets find a place in here that we can use.” He told Bilbo and Kili and off they were. 

The next days, the group was busy with it to find intact quarters and to clean them out. To hunt whatever prey was to find around here… what was surprisingly much, and to gather as much food together as they could to prepare for the worst. Fili and Kili were almost every day out to hunt. Bilbo too, since he could use his bow passably now, thanks to Kili’s training him in the late. 

At one time they encountered an odd group of Buffalo alike beasts with long coats that reminded Bilbo on some drawings in his old books. 

“Those are musk ox!” He breathed, seeing the huge beasts forming a protective cycle around their young, seeing the hunters. It turned out that the ox were rather hard to hunt and after having killed one, the others attacked Kili, Bilbo and Fili in retaliation what lead to a chase across the grasslands that had them all up in knots once they had escaped them onto a rock. 

Later the beasts left their unfortunate comrade and they could recover it. The three needed four turns to transport all the meat back to their dwelling. Even as strong as Fili and Kili were, they could not move the complete cadaver. They chose to not hunt them again without a group of more hunters to help. 

The other animals around here were either huge, like the ox, or rather small quarry. 

He hated it to have to kill but they needed the meat badly and the furs of the beasts too. To make warm winter clothing for the colder days that fast approached now. The weather here was odd. The seasons changed far earlier as Bilbo was used to. 

Auld and Daisy had become best friends over the course of the last weeks and now played happily house with Alaric and Roderic often under Adalgrim’s watchful gaze. Sorel and his sisters too joined the play most often. Sorel thought, he tried to slingshot rabbits and other small animals just outside the gate and got rather good at it in no time at all. 

Bilbo often staid in the caves after a while. He was busy soon with preparing the meat for the winter by the means of smoking it or, after Kili found some salt in the tunnels of their new hideout, to salt them in. He worked himself nearly down to the bones in the next days with doing that and with preparing the other food for storage as well. 

He and Adalgrim and Sorel soon were very busy with that task and with making their little place inhabitable with cleaning out the debris and dirt. The children staid always near them. Too big was the scare that they had gotten from their ordeal to venture out or away for more than a few steps from the older members of their new little patchwork family. 

The old Sheppard had given them some of his wool and had left them three of his sheep with them. 

Bilbo soon found himself back with showing a curios Mina and Lena how to spin it to yarn that they could use then to knit warm underwear and other clothing and fabrics in the evenings. He was no fool, they needed warmer beddings, cloths and such badly. An entire household on goods needed to be made in haste from a scratch. 

Before the winter truly broke in and trapped them all inside for good. 

Adalgrim set out various snares and traps for animals around their temporally new home. He had often watched his older brothers on their hunts and now used that knowledge for them all to catch prey as good he was able to. Sorel soon copied that and together they caught a lot of wild geese, bunnies, rabbits and other smaller game. 

While Bilbo was busy with making whatever he could from the wool and the furs, Kili worked in his spare time in which he wasn’t hunting bigger animals, on the leathers to make useful items out of them. Fili took to it to cut down tree after tree when he wasn’t hunting and all helped to transport the wood into their little den. 

He hacked his frustrations about their dilemma away on the wood in those days. 

Soon they had a rather large amount of fire wood and kindling. Sorel found tinder conk in one of the caves near theirs that was fast harvested from Adalgrim and packed away safely from Bilbo. 

The wood that was useable, Kili worked on with his brother to make out of it some rough furniture since none of the old had survived the time under water. Sometimes they found odd pieces of such in the tunnels but never they found intact pieces. Some furnishings had survived the water more or less. It was stone work and rather heavy to move. In some cases it had become one again with the floor and they had to leave it. 

One time, Kili suddenly turned up, huffing and sweaty and dragged a stone table inside with him that he had found in one of the rooms in the old halls.   
It was nearly fully intact, only one edge had broken off and was filed down later so no one of the little ones could hurt itself on the sharp edge. Bilbo was so happy to have a table again to sit and work and eat upon again, that he without delay made him a meat pie that the Dwarrow loved so much as thanks.  
One entirely just for Kili. 

The Dwarf promptly hugged him nearly comatose in his glee and ate it faster as anyone could believe. In minutes only the entire pie had vanished in his stomach. 

The milk of a few goats that Fili had caught and Adalgrim had tamed, Bilbo used to make some cheese from that was quickly celebrated. Adalgrim found some late berries and spend them to bake a cake that was worshiped equally intensely and ended the same way as the cheese before rather rapidly… all in all, they managed rather good on their own in the following weeks. 

Sorel turned out to be rather good with carving things and soon was ordered from Fili to carve them items like spoons and such or whatever else he could make. 

Fili looked each day for a sign that his uncle had gotten the message but did not really trust in it that Thorin had. He was set more on it to prepare for a long winter and worked on the furniture in his spare time. Often he was accompanied by Bilbo in those hours. 

Who then knit away on something mostly. 

The two talked about everything and anything in those hours. The Dwarrow felt himself often fondly reminded on the times when his mother, uncle and father had worked on their things after they all had settled in the blue mountains for good. Each night, they all fell exhausted into their beds. Wearied down to the bones from their ordeal and the now following hard work. 

There was not much time left for them sometimes to even talk much with each other besides a few words. 

When the first frost came and with it soon after the first soft fall of snow, they had managed it to make enough food to last the winter if not comfortably so, at least it would last them halfway till spring. They would not hunger, Fili proudly found out when inspecting their storage together with Bilbo and he was more than glad that they had gotten enough together to ensure that. 

By the now, he had become more near to what he silently had begun to call his Hobbit in of late. 

The two often found themselves back to make the decisions for their group… a rather surprising turn of events. “That should last us until spring.” Bilbo told him with a nod of his own after their inspection of their goods. Walking out Fili closed the freshly made door shut behind them. “Aye, it should. Luckily we have begun to hunt early enough or we would be in trouble soon. You were right with your musings that the summers up here are shorter as in the lower regions where we normally life. Properly you are right with your prediction that the winters are long too.” 

Bilbo nodded distracted at Fili’s words while watching the Dwarf’s muscles bulk at the weight of the crude door to their storeroom for food. 

It was rather heavy and he often needed one of the brothers to hold it open for him to bring in food. The room was colder as the rest inside here and ideal to keep their gathered food fresh that way. he wished he had such a cold room back at home. Watching the Dwarf lately made his stomach flip pleasantly. Especially when Fili looked as sweaty and hot like he did currently do. He gulped down about a sudden lump in his troth. 

The confounded Dwarf was too attractive for his own good and Bilbo, to his everlasting shame, found out that he found him much too attractive for his sanity in of late! 

Valar! He wasn’t made of stone and rather young still and that three times cursed Dwarf seem to lay on it to try to seduce Bilbo lately did not help matters at all. And that Fili did try that, of that Bilbo was certain since a while now. He tried to mask his raging libido up by turning again and briskly walk out of the tunnel that lead to the storeroom. 

Behind him, Fili grinned at his retreating back. 

He was perfectly aware of the effect his trim body had on the poor Hobbit all the time. Lately he had tried to use it to his advantage to make Bilbo give in and let him ravish the Hobbit. It worked slowly on poor Bilbo, he could tell from the blushes and muttered curses of said Hobbit. Sniggering Fili jogged to catch up with the aggravated Hobbit. 

“You know, it is rather adorable how you always try to not be alone with me in small places, Bilbo…” He drawled lowly once he had caught up with Bilbo. The Hobbit gave him a wry look and doubled his strides to walk out on the infuriating blond that way. 

Fili did not let him escape this time. 

He deftly stepped in Bilbo’s way and used his body to corner Bilbo into an alcove in the tunnel cleverly until Bilbo could no longer pass him by without to have to touch Fili. He looked up at the smiling blond with a scowl. “Release me at once, Fili!” The Dwarf gave him a soft smile in return. “But I do not even hold you! …oh Bilbo, why do you avoid me so badly…” Fili shook his head at the fuming look that his words earned him from Bilbo that soon after looked down to the ground in his frustration. 

Sighing, Fili choose to try his luck and leaned into the surprised yelping Hobbit until his body trapped Bilbo’s against the wall perfectly. One of his arms leaned against the wall on each side of the Hobbits head. 

“Do you really think I do not see your looks at me all the time or that I did not notice your attraction to me? It would be impossible for me to do so since it mirrors mine all too well.” He told the stunned Bilbo softly before he leaned in and gave into his need to kiss the Hobbit on the perky nose.   
Bilbo sputtered and rubbed indignantly at it with one hand, glaring at Fili all the time. 

“That, Master Fili, is not the point here, damnit!” It was a rare treat to hear Bilbo cuss. Fili relished in the fact that he had made him do so and grinned. “Then what is, tell me?” He gave the Hobbit a questioning look. “Is it that you do not want me? Because I know that you do and that just as badly as I do want you. So cease that line of thought right here, Bilbo.” 

Bilbo flushed some more and stared again down to the stone floor under their feed in his embarrassment and inwardly toyed with the idea to slip past the accursed Dwarf. 

Seeing him flush did something to Fili’s brain cells that made him snap. Within a fraction of a moment he bend his head down until his mouth was in line with Bilbo’s ear and he liked at it before he bit lightly into the tip. The moan that escaped a surprised Bilbo went straight down to his dick and before he knew it he was already half hard and wanting. He gave the shocked Hobbit no time to recover and pressed his body flush against that of the slightly smaller man until they were touching each other from hip to chest. 

Another whimper escaped Bilbo when he felt Fili press his body to his. 

The hard planes of the warriors body and rather snug pants he wore left no imagination of his state of arousal to the equally aroused Hobbit. Fili nearly moaned himself when he felt the state in which Bilbo was in and had cleverly hidden form detection with the longer tunic that he had begun to wear since the weather had turned colder. 

“I knew it! You want me just as bad as I want you, Bilbo. No more hiding from me, my dear Hobbit!” Fili urgently whispered into the ear he had bitten before he drew back enough to look at the flushed face of Bilbo shortly before he descended slowly until his mouth touched that of his captive in a sweet, almost chaste kiss. 

It did not stay by the rather harmless touch. Soon his tongue traced the lips of Bilbo until the Hobbit escaped another of those arousing moans that was fast used from Fili to slip his tongue in. He licked into the moist cavern with enthusiasm until Bilbo begun to kiss him back. Coaxed his tongue into sliding against his until Fili was moaning just as madly as the Hobbit. 

Slowly he begun to undulate against Bilbo’s hardness until the hips of the Hobbit begun their answering rolls back and Bilbo begun to clutch to his sleeveless shirt to have something, anything to hold onto while the waves of his arousal drowned him under them. Fili made sure to have their groins slide together in an tantalizing manner that created such a friction that had them both soon panting madly into each others mouth and straining against their constricting pants almost painfully. 

He could not take it anymore! Enough was enough, Fili thought preoccupied with moving frantically against the Hobbit in his arms and let his hands slide under the thighs of the now equally wildly bucking Hobbit to hoist him up and Bilbo’s legs around his waist to then press deeper against the one he had wanted to ravish since a longer while now. 

Bilbo gave up the pretense and moved his arms around Fili’s sweaty neck to get a better hold to hold himself up. 

The trim body of the Dwarf felt incredible against his! As much as Bilbo had tried to avoid it to give into this mad attraction growing between them, he simply could no longer do so. He had more often then not brought himself off in the late, just thinking of the many things he could do with Fili instead together. 

And that was exactly the trouble here. 

Bilbo wasn’t your average Hobbit, never had been and when the others had fooled around, he had not because Bilbo, he wanted no quick fuck and thank you, if he was intimate with someone, he knew he wanted more. And with Fili being a Dwarf, that would mean that he had to stay with him in this accursed mountains and could never go back home! 

When he felt two large hands grip his ass possessively to knead it with the large hands, he lost it and grind back into the hard rolls of Fili’s hips with equal ferocity. Soon he was biting at the lips of the him madly kissing Dwarf while searching for his release of this sweat madness they had fallen into because of the stubbornness of the confounded Dwarf that now drove him mad with kisses and moves. 

He lost it when Fili went back to nip and lick at his sensitive ears and finally came with a long moan of Fili’s name. The Dwarf was not far behind, a few more aborted trust of his hips and Fili too came inside of his pants with a violent growl and a breathless curse. His hips made a few more of those aborted trusts before they stilled and Fili sung to his knees with Bilbo still held tightly to his heaving chest. 

He did not release the hold on Bilbo for a while afterwards. 

“No more avoiding me, Bilbo. Or what you want yourself, for that matter.” He finally panted into Bilbo’s ear once he found his voice box back. Looking into the fearful eyes of Bilbo he tenderly stroke some of the long grown curls out of the others eyes. 

“I know why you try to avoid me,” He pointed between them vaguely and laid his hand on Bilbo’s chest, right above the still wildly beating heart in the end, “Try to fight this, between us but no more. You here me?” He gave Bilbo a stern look that had the Hobbit duck his head in embarrassment. “I know you want to go back to your home but tell me one thing, thought. Could you even fit in there any longer? After all you have been through, do you honestly believe that you could live on as before?” 

Bilbo looked back at Fili like a deer in headlights at Fili’s words. He found out to his horror that he had no answer to that question! Instead he buried his face into the wide chest in front of him and cried. 

Fili and Kili still hunted whatever game they could catch until the first real snowfall set in. In between that and their other duties, Fili had begun to kiss and hold Bilbo whenever he could get away with it and for the now, it was enough for him. Thought, Bilbo seemed even more determined now to escape him and his advances as ever before. 

With the snowfall came visitors quite unexpectedly.


	5. The musings of a King and signs of the future to come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thats the last chapter of the first part of my little ark. I hope someone liked this story.   
> If You want, I can add another part soon, but since not many seem to have liked my story, I am a bit torn here to do so.   
> Let me know please if someone wants to read more?   
> Thank you, Suryallee

Thorin Oakenshield found the place where his nephews had holed up together with their strange group of survivors, two days after the first real snowfall of the season. 

The old Sheppard had told the worried Dwarf King where he could find them. He was immensely grateful for the help of the kind man and his son and did plan to reward the humans for that. To say that he was impressed with what the odd group, consisting of children of nearly all races and ages and some more or less adults had managed to work out together on such short notice was the understatement of the millennium! 

They had build up a functioning household from out of nothing. 

After a long talk to his nephews, he had a good inkling of what had happened and he saw the bonds that Fili and Kili had build to the odd group of theirs within the months they had been captured, tortured, fleet and lived together with the others. Moreover, they, with the two Dwarrows in return. He, like Fili wondered about it if Bilbo and Adalgrim would still fit in with their people easily when returning…not that he would let them go without a fight. 

Too much the two and the other children already meant to his nephews. 

First, Thorin resolved himself; he had to find out whatever he could about the fate of their families. Then he would decide of what to do with them. He told them nothing of that. He only told them that he would inquire about their families for them. Sorel told him outright that his and his sisters, was wiped out.   
He had no other family left besides his two little sisters. What settled it for Thorin. He would give them to a family that had no children to be raised. He would not send them out into the wilds to fend for themselves. Not after what they all had been through together. 

The Dwarflings were Broadbeam’s and one of his men that had come with him, Bofur promised to find out to which they actually belonged. If there was still family left, the miner, occasionally toymaker swore to find them. They could determine that the two were Broadbeam’s by a tattoo that each of the little ones wore on their shoulders. It was usual practice under the Dwarf clans to mark their offspring that way to later have a means to identify them if needed. 

The Hobbit’s, they were an entirely other matter to deal with. 

Thorin knew that Hobbits valued their families above all else and often had large ones too. The families and clans of that fife would take them in if word got out of their survival. Looking at Fili, Thorin felt a pang of sadness for Fili. He knew, he could only stall their departure but not prevent it. The oldest of his sisters boys who was his heir was seemingly infuriated with the Hobbit lad Bilbo, who in turn made no secret out of it that he wanted back home. He even offered to take in the human children. 

All to be as far away as possible from Fili and his advances as soon as possible, Thorin rightfully figured out after some time watching the two dance around each other. 

The young Hobbit was rather surprising once one got to know him better. 

And he was well educated and smart too and Thorin had the suspicion that Bilbo knew that the Dwarves did not want to let them go again. He narrowed his eyes at Thorin’s words often enough to ram that home to the King. Clever, clever Hobbit, the King thought to himself, highly amused. He could see why his heir was so enamored with the smart mouthed Hobbit lad. He was rather resourceful when needed and knowledgeable too. 

To trick that boy into staying any longer as necessary would be a challenge but he somehow had the suspicion that Fili was already working on that.   
The winter was a fortunate delay. There was no way the little ones could make it undamaged through the snow back to the Shire and Bilbo knew this. And when spring came, well he just had to find a good justification then to keep them. At least until spring, Thorin and Fili had time to come up with such a one beforehand. 

Inspecting the old stronghold soon brought some attention-grabbing facts back into the light of the day. 

For one, the old place had still mines that were full with iron, other metals and gemstones. Salt too was something that could be harvested inside the mountain to be sold to high prices to the traders. There was a rather big natural deposit inside of the mountain and salt was worth its weight in gold. His miners found stone coal and marble in the depths of the old mine tunnels. They also found a hot spring that had once had filled a bigger bathing area with its water. 

It was thankfully used from Bilbo and the children after being deemed safe from Bofur. 

When confronted from his heir and Bilbo with the Mithril that they had smuggled out of Moria, Thorin needed to sit down for a while in shock. Together they boys had managed it between them to bring out with them a lot more of the rare metal as it had been seen for a long while, outside of Moria. The Hobbits reasoning for doing so was sound and looked on with approval from Thorin and the other Dwarves when being told. 

He looked over the amount they had gathered, diverged it into twelve neat piles, despise of Bilbo’s protests that he did not intent to take any together with Adalgrim’s and had it packed away from a Dwarf named Gloin for them. 

“Maybe you truly do not need it now, Master Bilbo, but what is with later?” He asked Bilbo cunningly after that was done. At the sputter of the selfless creature, that he was from a well off family and that the children needed the money more and so on, Thorin finally interrupted Bilbo gently. 

“This is for the best. Seeing that you truly do only care for the little ones warms my heart, boy but I know the unstableness of life much too well. Let me do as I wish, for your own good this time, yes?” Bilbo deflated after that and finally nodded almost shyly, a slight blush on his young face and not looking at anyone in the room. 

He left again with the promise to deliver messages to the Shire for Bilbo and Adalgrim who had made fast friends with Bofur together with Sorel. He left the miner with them and three other Dwarves too from which one was a healer and looked over the group with worried eyes for their health and state of it. He told Thorin clearly that they were lucky to have survived with so little repercussions of their ordeals to show. The rest was there to guard the children and to prepare the place in his absence for a lot more Dwarves. 

Like Fili, he too saw the merit in it to relocate his clan here. The place was perfect for the survivors of the Longbeards of Erebor to settle and make their home in. 

The area was full with animals to hunt, the earth around here, Bilbo had told him, was good for growing various foods and the location of the old stronghold was safer as their current place. The space available bigger and already carved out of the rock foundation of the mountain back. His people had just to restore it back to its former glory what would take no time at all for them. 

Thorin too agreed with his nephews feeling that the place called to him in a way. 

He left with the very notion to settle as much of his kin over here before the winter broke in earnestly as he could manage it. It wasn’t that far from their current settlement as one thought. The folk of Durin were used to travel under far less impossible circumstances as a beginning winter. With the help of sleights, it would be easy to reach the mountain settlement in less time even as on pony back. 

In the late, their current home had become less and less a good place to stay in. 

Lacking in an alternative, Thorin had grit his teeth and had made the best out of it. Until his nephews had vanished on a hunting trip! After that, he had frantically searched for them but could not find a trace of Fili or Kili and their group. To find out from a human wool trader that they had settled here had been a surprise. 

To learn what Saruman had tried to do, a shock! 

He needed to inform Gandalf of the doings of the other wizard and that fast! Before the corrupted wizard found the time to make more Orc’s in the caves under Isengard in the meantime. Who knew what else he did cook out in his tower while no one knew of his fall from grace up until now? 

Thorin did not want to wait for it to bite him in the ass to find out! 

Even if that meant that, he had to work together with elves to ensure that the wizard would learn to know his wrath. While he rode, Thorin balled his fists around the reigns in his suppressed rage. Eight good hunters dead because the madcap had tried to make Dwarf Orc’s out of them. He had even tried to do that to his nephews! 

He silently mumbled prayers to his maker to grant him the honor to kill the old bastard. 

In the meanwhile Bilbo and the others had now help to clean out more space for them and in Bofur, someone that actually knew what he was doing when making them better furniture like beds to use, Thorin learned from his spy-master a harsh truth about the Hobbits families. 

The parents of the three little Fauntlings, as Bilbo had called the littlest Hobbits affectionately, were dead. Killed in the sudden attack in which nearly ten Hobbits had lost their lives alongside them. Under them the father of Bilbo and the mother of Adalgrim. Bilbo’s mother had gained a nasty wound that she had barely survived, still hoping that her son was alive somewhere. At least, that sorrow, Thorin could ease when he meet her. 

She had recovered enough when he meets her to demand to be brought to her son. 

He had not the heart to stop her once he saw her tears strained face and actually found it rather better to comply her wish as to bring Bilbo back to the Shire in the spring. If he was clever enough, he could ensure this way that Fili had more time to find a way to keep Bilbo for good. While he rode to his settlement, Belladonna Baggins, ne Took packed for a longer stay in the northern mountains. 

When she had told him of her plans, she had also surprised Thorin with her massive knowledge about various things and wizards in general. Told him some things about Saruman he hadn’t known before, like that, the old bastard was actually a member of the so-called white council of Arda and that he had once driven out a nasty necromancer or whatever it had been, from Dol Guldur near Mirkwood. 

And she had known the northern Dunedin well enough that they had turned over each stone on their search in their want to find her son and the other Hobbitling’s just because she had begged them too… It made the woman an unknown bigger player in the things as he had ever anticipated it. 

It had been decided that Adalgrim’s father who was one of her many brothers, the aunt of the three little fauntlings and her best friend and one of Belladonna’s gardeners' sons, the oldest Hamfast, would accompany her there. As well as a few of the more adventurous Bounders of the Tooks. One of them being their leader and Uncle of Bilbo and Adalgrim. To help the Dwarrows with preparing fields in the spring and to reunite with their children. 

That the Shire leaders sent more food with them as Thorin had seen in a long while, as a thanks for caring for their little ones, was a bonus he was smart enough to not turn away. 

When he came back from his short trip with his sister and a bigger group of others, they were stunned to learn that they had not only gotten grains and fruits from the Hobbits but also farm animals. He had to ride off again, learning that, to get more of his men to guard the beasts! Much to his sister’s amusement while she saw the grumpy King off on his second trip. 

It took their trek to the old stronghold nearly a month that way to reach it. 

When they did, the snow had already piled up somewhat, so far up in the north but no one paid the white wonderland it had created any more mind as that the sleights hopefully would hold up and the animals survive the trip. 

Seeing Bilbo’s first shocked and then, look of pure delight, seeing his mother and kin and than see him sprint through the now rather deep snow to envelope her in a bone crushing hug, was enough to make it up to Thorin to have put up with the additional people and baggage. 

He left the mountain again, shortly after, to attend a council in Rivendell, concerning Saruman and his doings. 

This time he was accompanied only by their guards, Fili, Kili, Bilbo and Adalgrim and his father and Bilbo’s mother and her Bounder brother who went by the name Hildifons. They had left Sorel in the mountain after a longer debate because Oin, the healer was sure that the boy would get sick. And truly, the reports of the events of the four other youngsters should be fully enough to ram it home to the council what Saruman was up to now, and what he was no longer. 

Namely, a player for the good team. 

When told, Gandalf had been shocked and had paled until he was as white as a wall. When learning that one of the captured Hobbits had been one Bilbo Baggins, the old wizard had begun to cry to Thorin’s utter astonishment. 

He was soon told by Gandalf that he knew the boy and more so, his mother. 

Gandalf had taken it up to assemble the reminding council to deal with the now mad wizard, while Thorin was busy with gathering up his kin for the move and tell the other Dwarf lords of Saruman’s treachery. The resulting cacophony they made in their anger when learning about it all, had shaken the conference hall they had gathered in. 

Dain, the one that’s hall had been used, had to call for a break, so high run the emotions after the message was told from Thorin. 

Now, riding to Rivendell while gritting his teeth at the fact that it had to be the elven residence of all places to meet the others, Thorin had the full support of the other lords behind him for the first time in a century. Many Dwarves had vanished over the last months. Their families wanted revenge, just as much as Thorin wanted it. 

The Broadbeam lords had supported him the most, after learning of the fate of the rescued little ones that turned out to be related to their current leader, King Brodi. The two were indeed siblings as Bilbo had already mused it and distant cousins of Brodi. He had offered to take them in as his own and Thorin could not say no, since he knew how sincere and good-hearted the other ruler was. 

After spring, the Brodi would come and get them, personally with his wife. 

While riding to Rivendell, Thorin mused what the future held in store for them all. 

Behind their group, dark clouds gathered up quickly and darkened the sky out as if the Valar wanted to answer him this way silently… 

End of the first part.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for the mentioned deaths of the little ones in here, I did not like to write those, I hate it always too when others do that. Can normally not even stand the mentioning of such in other stories. I wonder if anyone even reads the end notes, oh well, if you do, have a nice day^^


End file.
